Basic Duplex Cancel Question

Still trying to learn the basics. If I'm looking at a duplex cancel from the 1920s I notice there is a time listed in the center of the circle listing the city. What does this time represent?

Thank you

The time that the item was received (processed) by the post office.

What does received and processed mean and are they the same thing?

I was looking at a duplex hand cancel from Ohio and it says 5PM. (how often does the clerk have to change the time? I assume duplex hand cancels had to be changed manually. Every hour?

I would say received and processed are the same thing.

The duplex hand cancels would be changed more frequently than every hour. By the end of the 19th century, the time in at least some of the Post Offices in New South Wales was changed every quarter hour. In other places around the world and during the 20th century it might have been even more frequent but I don't know for sure.

Quick answer: between 4:00 and 5:00, or between 4:30 and 5:00 depending on the equipment at that particular office. Yes, changed manually.

More specifically, practices varied through the years, but your cancel is from the 1920s, so using the 1924 "Postal Laws and Regulations", note halfway through section 525: "... and hour thereof if the office be supplied with an hour-dating stamp."



One the next page, the first paragraph of section 526 details how the time is set forward, etc.



On a tangent to cite an exception to the practice of half-hours being the smallest time division normally used in the U.S., some models of canceling machines from the Time Marking Machine Company (especially the larger-dial machines in common use 1909-1913) had an automatic clock mechanism to mark mail to-the-minute. The clock did not work properly in many cities and the time was apparently manually advanced each half hour. Elkhart, Indiana's clock worked for only a portion of the 4 years there. Here are some working examples:



Lastly, many of the spray cancels from the last few decades mark mail to-the-minute. A longer reply than I intended!

John Becker,

Thank you so much!! Btw: Where did you come across those images? Is there a digital pdf online?

I am fairly sure the PL&R volumes are on-line somewhere, but I used my hard-copy and scanned it.
Likewise, the covers are mine.

John, I must ask. Do I sense a career in the postal system? Postmaster?

Oh no. I wouldn't touch employment there.

Besides, we need him on this side of the post office counter.

dmith426:

There are many of the Official Post Office publications on-line, but not always easy to find the one you want/need quickly. I've tried to address this....

Go to the following link: http://www.texascovers.org/featured-articles/

On this page are links to a series of files you can download. I call these Portals as they provide a direct window to a large number of Post Office publications - and other on-line files.

There are Portals for the PL&R, Postal Guides, Reports of the Postmaster General, etc., and some more recent publications to USPS publications, and they include URL links to copies of most editions of these publications.

These are the result of literally years of research and capture of URL links to publications in various digital libraries.

If you (or anyone else looking at these) have problems, please contact me at the address embedded in each file.
Mike

Another simple question. Why did they put the time on the postmarks?